Thanks Mr. Muckit and LiveActionPro for the words of encouragement.

It's weird - you wouldn't think something as simple as a few supportive posts from complete strangers could possibly make any difference, but honestly just feeling like you guys are rooting for me makes coping with a nasty losing streak like this a little easier. So seriously, thanks again to everyone who’s posted in here. I really do appreciate it.

Anyway, I’m going to hit up the regular local games this weekend, and then next week I have to spend two days in central Florida for work, so I’m going to try to find time to play some poker while I’m down there. In all the time I’ve been playing live poker I’ve still only played in one legal venue, so I’m really looking forward to checking out the action in a new location.

OK, I know it’s been a lot longer than usual in between updates, so I figured I’d better post something so people don’t start wondering if I’ve gone broke.

I actually just got back from spending the weekend in Colorado visiting my brother. His daughter (my niece) just had her first birthday, so my whole family went out there to celebrate. I didn’t get to play any poker out there, but the trip was still awesome. We went white water rafting on Saturday, which was something I had never done before. The water was freaking freezing, but once you got used to that it was a great experience. Things got a little dicey when one of the boats in our group flipped over in the middle of one of the strongest rapids we went through all day, and one of the passengers apparently had a panic attack and went into shock from falling in the water. The guides ultimately got her pulled into one of the other boats and then got everyone to shore. No one was hurt, but the woman and her family were too freaked out to get back in the boat so they had to send a van to drive them back to the starting point.

Another remarkable experience from Colorado was my first visit to a legal marijuana store. It was really surreal to walk in to a legitimate business and have it smell exactly like my friend’s house who I used to buy weed from in college. The selection was pretty impressive even at the small corner-store style place we went to, and we wound up buying enough edibles to last the whole weekend for like $60. Walking out I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was all too good to be true, that the cops were going to jump out at any minute and start arresting people, but no, everything went smoothly. Actually seeing how well the system that they’ve got set up out there works, it’s just that much more frustrating that more states aren’t following suit yet.

OK, now back to poker. Like I mentioned in my last post I spent a few days in Florida last week for work, and while I was there I managed to hit up a couple of poker rooms. First, I got to play at the Daytona Beach Kennel Club and Poker Room last Wednesday. The room itself was reasonably nice, and at the time I was there they had multiple tables of $1/$2 and $2/$5 going with no waiting. Not too bad for a weeknight.

The play in this room seemed to be super passive pretty much across the board. The entire time I was there I didn’t see a single player who had any concept of playing hands aggressively. Everyone was just content to limp/call preflop hoping to hit a hand, check/fold all air, check/call all draws until the river (at which point they’ll check/fold if they miss), and only bet or raise with the nuts. Overall it was one of the softest lineups I’ve ever played in, and I ended up booking a solid win.

Hand 1
The biggest pot of my session in Daytona came up when I limp/called UTG with 99. I’m normally coming in for a raise with this hand, but this table was so weak-tight that I felt like a UTG open was going to get too many folds so I decided it would be better to limp in and try to get value post-flop. Anyway, a few more people limp in behind, a fish raises to $20 from the HJ, the BB calls, I call, and one of the other limpers calls.

The flop came out 543, and now the BB donks out for $50. The dude seems pretty weak here, so I raise it up to $150 for value. The MP limper folds, but now the preflop raiser tanks for a few seconds and calls the $150 cold. The BB quickly folds when the action gets back around to him, so we’re heads up. Now the turn comes the Q, and I shove all in for the villain’s remaining $275. Villain doesn’t take much time with it and makes the call. The river is the Q, I table my pocket 9’s and villain mucks.

Then on Thursday I hit up the Hard Rock Casino in Tampa. I walked in and was immediately blown away by the size of the place. The casino floor seemed to extend indefinitely in all directions, with table games I had never heard of and more different types of slot machines than I could imagine. After a few minutes of wandering around and losing my sense of direction several times I finally found the poker room, tucked away in the back corner and separated from the main casino by a long hallway with posters of rock stars lining the walls. Clearly the good folks at the Seminole tribe want to be sure that you’ve had a chance to see what the rest of the casino has to offer before sitting down to play poker.

Now, granted I’m working off of a small sample size here, but the $2/$5 game at the Tampa Hard Rock was a night-and-day difference from what I experienced in Daytona Beach. First of all, the game in Tampa has a $1,000 max buyin, so there were a lot more deep stacks at the table. Second, while the entire player pool in Daytona seemed to be made up of passive, weak-tight fish, the game in Tampa was significantly tougher, with the table being made up of two professionals, 3 or 4 decent but exploitable regs, 1 or 2 fish, and then me. I ended up taking a small loss for this session, but I never really felt like I was out of my depth or anything. A year ago I probably would have been eaten alive at a table like this, so I feel pretty good about the fact that I was able to hold my own in this kind of lineup.

Hand 2
Here’s a hand from my Tampa session that I was pretty proud of: I straddle on the BTN to $10, 4 players limp in (good reg UTG, pro in MP 1, fish in MP 2, nitty reg in CO), and I check my option with A3. The flop comes down Q94. It gets checked to the nitty guy in the CO who bets out $20, I call as a float, UTG folds, pro calls, fish calls. The turn is the 9, it gets checked to the CO again who now bets $20 into the ~$100 pot, I raise it to $115, the pro tanks and folds, the fish folds, the CO folds and I take it down.

Hand 3
Then near the end of the session I had this hand go down that I thought was pretty interesting. Fishy MAWG limps in UTG, I raise to $25 from UTG+1 with KT, folds around to the UTG limper who calls.

The flop is QT3, UTG checks, I bet $30, UTG beats me into the pot. Turn is the A, UTG checks, I bet $55, and again UTG calls before I’ve even got my chips in the pot. The river is the 2 and UTG checks again. I expect to have the best hand here the vast majority of the time and consider just taking it to showdown, but instead I decide to bet $100 to try to move UTG off of any weak Qx type hands he might show up with. UTG tanks for about a minute, and finally makes the call.

“Well, I guess you’ve got to be good,” I announce as I turn my hand over. But to my relief UTG just shakes his head, says “I knew you didn’t have anything,” and tables JT. My kicker plays, and I unexpectedly take down the pot.

Anyway, I should also mention that after my last post I had another couple more losing sessions in the local underground games before my Florida trip. I don’t think I made any egregiously bad plays in those sessions, but to be honest the fact that I had been losing so much lately made it difficult to be fully on my A-game. I’m sure everyone know what I’m talking about: when you’re losing and it starts to feel like you’re just going to continue losing no matter what you do, it can be hard to trust yourself to make the right plays when your stack is at risk.

Hand 4
Here’s an example of that from last Friday: Mr. Kim opens to $15 from UTG+2. (This is his standard opening size for almost his entire range. Mr. Kim never open limps from early position, and only opens for larger sizing with premium hands.) We get one caller on the BTN, and I call from the SB with 87. We start the hand with $1,000 effective stacks.

I hit top two on a 872 flop. I think this flop is going to get checked through a lot, so I decide to donk out for $25. Mr. Kim raises to $80, the BTN folds, and now it’s back to me. At this point I felt like taking a bet/3bet line would be a bit of an overplay against a villain like Mr. Kim who is capable of laying down overpairs in this sort of spot, so I just call.

The turn was a pretty safe card: the Q. I lead out for $130, and now Mr. Kim quickly raises to $380. Against almost anyone else I think I’m happily getting it in here, but this guy is one of the few actually competent players in the local player pool, and when he makes a raise like this he usually has the goods. He is capable of semi-bluffing with a draw, but in a deep-stacked situation like this he’s much more likely to show up with a made hand that he wants to protect. And with pretty much zero other two pair combos in his range on this board, I really felt like Mr. Kim was going to show up with a set of deuces here, or maybe he hit a set on the turn with QQ.

Not wanting to call down here and then be faced with a river shove for the rest of my stack, I eventually decided to fold. I was almost sick to my stomach when Mr. Kim turned over K8, and explained “I put you on flush draw.” So obviously I gave this guy waaaaaaaay too much credit here. In any case, I don’t think I ever would have folded on the turn if I hadn’t been losing so much lately, but I was so worried about getting stuck another $1,000 in a cooler situation that I basically froze up. I’m just glad I managed to shake it off and get into a better mindset before heading down to Florida.

Current bankroll: $3,658

As you may have guessed from the lack of updates, I had some rough sessions since my last post. I wasn’t taking any huge individual losses, but for a couple of weeks it just felt like I couldn’t win no matter what I did. A lot of it was just due to variance, but then as we all know once you start losing over and over again it’s tough to keep playing your best.

I really didn’t feel like dealing with any hand histories during that stretch, but I do have a couple written down from last week involving our buddy Freddie that I guess are worth sharing:

Freddie limps UTG, 3 more limps, I check my option in the BB with T8. The flop comes T86, I lead out for $20 and Freddie ships all in for $285 total. It folds back around to me and I take some time to figure out WTF is going on and why Freddie is raising $265 into a $60 pot.

I look at him, and sort of thinking out loud I say “Man, Freddie, that is such a stupid bet.”

“Stupid is as stupid does,” Freddie responds.

“Can’t really argue with that... alright, I call.”

Freddie announces “top” and turns over AT. Turn and river brick and I scoop the pot.

A couple of hours later there’s a raise to $20 from a deep stacked player UTG, a call from EP, I call in MP with 87, Freddie calls next to act, and the BTN calls.

I flop the bottom end of it on a JT9 board, and bet out $45 when it gets checked over to me. Freddie again overbets all in, this time for $310 total. Loose passive fish on the BTN calls all in for less, PFR folds and EP folds. I’m not loving my hand in this spot, but I make the crying call and find myself drawing dead against Freddie’s KQ.

. . .

As June drew to a close, I was stuck almost $2,000 for the year and my “bankroll” was dwindling dangerously close to $0. At that point, to be honest, I was not feeling too great about this whole “live poker semi-pro” thing I’m trying to do. I guess it’s hard to think positively about poker when you’re consistently bleeding money and all too aware of the fact that you’re not playing your best.

But I had a three day weekend for the 4th of July, so I decided that maybe a trip across state lines could turn things around. As I made the drive I had $1,850 in my pocket, and no access to any additional funds for the time being. If I lost that money, I was going to have to sit out for at least a couple of weeks while I saved up some more buy ins.

Approaching the card room, I started to wonder if maybe I should just play the $2/$2 game for this trip to avoid completely busting my roll. But my goal is to make money, not to slow the rate at which I’m losing it. So I decided to keep playing $2/$5, and if I went broke I would just have to live with it for a while.

Well, the trip did not get off to a great start, and after 5 hours at the table I found myself stuck $650. With the $1,200 I had left comprising the last available money I had to gamble with, things were looking bleak. But then, mercifully, my luck started to turn around.

First I picked up AA and got a few big bets in before villain finally folded on the turn. Then a few hands later I 3bet KK from the BB to $115 and got three callers. I shoved for a pot-sized bet on a J75r flop, got called and held vs. AJ. I won another decent pot AIPF with QQ, and then made a good fold with AK on an AT7T3 board.

The next day I flopped top set on a KT6 board and got it all in against two flush draws. Turn and river came low red cards and I scooped the $1,000 pot. Then later I raised preflop with JJ and bet/3bet/called all in on a QJ2r board with villain’s AQ drawing almost dead in another $1000 pot.

Long story short, I continued to run reasonably well and ended up winning almost $3,000 for the trip. The bankroll once again has some breathing room and I feel like I’m back to consistently playing my A-game. At this point I feel like I can put all the recent setbacks behind me and focus on making the second half of “my first year as a live poker semi-pro” as profitable as possible.

Current bankroll: $4,337

I played one sort of unusual hand (for me at least) at Mr. Kim’s game this week.

Before I get to the hand, I should give a little background to explain why it played out the way it did. Normally I'm one of those guys who never talks while he's in a hand. It's just something I started doing when I was new to live poker and I was worried the more experienced players would be able to get tells on me. I've never been good at acting or masking my emotions in social situations, so I always felt most comfortable just staying still and silent and trying not to react to anything at all whenever I'm playing a hand. I try to always sit with the same posture as well.

Anyway, as this particular hand was being dealt I was in the middle of telling a story to the guy seated on my immediate right about my last trip to the nearby card room that we both sometimes visit, and for whatever reason this time I kept talking as the hand played out. Since I pretty much never do this, I think it had the effect of (1) taking me out of my sitting-like-a-statue comfort zone and (2) distracting me from really focusing on the hand because I'm thinking about my conversation with the guy on my right. (At this point the story I was telling is in italics, the hand being played out is in normal font.)

So the room was doing a promo where every 20 minutes the high hand wins $800, so there were at least 35-40 tables going. This hand went down with about 4 minutes left in the current high hand period, with AAAKK as the best hand for the time being.

I honestly wasn’t paying attention to how the hand played out, but on the river the board is KQ883 with no flushes possible. Older black gentleman in position bets some amount and gets called in two spots. First caller, a middle aged reg, turns over QT. Second caller, a very nice 65+ year old lady tables K5.

V1 (solid reg who sometimes calls too light, $450 effective), opens to $15 UTG.

The bettor is sitting there, his cards still face down in front of him. He gets a frustrated look on his face and gestures toward the lady with the K5, “she called with that?” The dealer confirms that the tabled hand is a pair of kings. He looks back at his cards, and then places them back face down in front of him. Now the guy takes on the condescending tone of someone who just lost a pot to a hand that should have been folded earlier. “Really? She called me the whole way with king five?”

I’m UTG+1, and I was in the middle of a sentence as I saw V1’s small open and looked down at my hand to see QQ. I thought it would look really strong if I abruptly stopped talking and put in a 3bet, so I made a split-second decision to act disinterested in the hand and casually throw out a call while continuing my conversation. 3 more callers, including V2 (tight ABC reg, $1700+ stack, $800 effective) on the BTN.

At this point the whole table is tired of waiting for this guy and people start telling him to muck so we can get on to the next hand. He responds with “Wait, hang on, don’t I get a minute to think about it?” We’re all telling him there’s nothing to think about, we’re at showdown, there’s no more betting, just table your hand or muck already. The only person coming to his defense is the sweet old lady with the K5: “It’s OK, give him a minute. He just wants to make sure what he has.”

Flop ($75) - KQ2

BB checks, V1 checks. At this point I felt like I was committed to my "act disinterested in the hand" routine, so I quickly check behind. Again, I just felt like abruptly cutting off the story I was telling and all of a sudden becoming interested in the hand would convey a lot of strength, which is the last thing I want since I'm basically holding the nuts at this point.

Normally I think I would always bet this flop after V1 checks to me, but my split-second reasoning at the time was that there were several players behind me who would be very likely to bet when everyone checks to them in a raised pot, either for value with a good K or Q, as a semibluff with a draw, or just to take a stab at it.

Nothing anyone says makes any difference, and the guy continues to sit there with his cards face down. Finally someone asks for the floor to be called over. It takes another minutes or so for the floor to get there and the dealer to explain the situation, and finally the floor tells the guy “turn your cards over or your hand is dead.”

“Really? I’ve got to turn ‘em up right now?’

“Yes, sir.”

“OK,” the guy announces as he slowly lifts his cards to turn them over, “high hand!” I look down and see that the guy has tabled 88 for the nuts.

Field callers check, V2 on the BTN bets $50, BB folds.

The table absolutely blows up, with everyone berating the guy at once. The lady with the K5 wasn’t happy about being made to sit there for so long thinking her hand might be good, and especially didn’t appreciate the guy’s comments about her hand once the slowroll was revealed. People are going back and forth calling the guy an *******, and telling him that’s the worst behavior they’ve ever seen at a poker table.

The guy never apologizes or acknowledges that he did anything wrong. His excuse was that there were still a couple of minutes left on the high hand, and he didn’t want anyone at our table to have a chance to beat his quad 8's. Of course this makes no sense since the other 40 tables they had going were all eligible for the high hand as well.

V1 check-raises to $125. Now, with my story coming to an end and feeling like there’s no way I can continue to slow play on this board, I cold 3bet to $300. The problem with this line is that I look so ridiculously strong that decent players like V1 and V2 should be folding almost their entire range and I can probably only get paid off by KQ (which I block) or a set of deuces. But at this point if I just flat V2 is going to have odds to call with any sort of draw and I can find myself in a really tough spot on a lot of turn cards. Also, if one or both villains has a made hand already there are a lot of turn cards that can kill my action.

So I make the 3bet, V2 tank folds, V1 tank folds. Both claim to have had AK.

Obviously if both villains turn their hands face up then we would want to continue to slow play the flop since they're drawing almost dead. But results-oriented thinking aside, against their likely ranges 3betting has to be the right play on this board, right?

Current bankroll: $5,877

Returning after a long absence:

Preflop: yes, it seems strong to cut off a story and 3 bet but it's way better than what you did. Besides, it doesn't matter what you're doing when you 3 bet. It's going to get attention. You should be much more concerned with tight utg v1 opening. That might be an ok reason to flat, but not because you want to avoid suspicion.

Flop: check behind made me cringe. Who cares if you look strong? You have second nuts on a wet draw heavy board. Bet!

You cost yourself a lot of money on this. If you 3 bet pre you get at least one call and probably more. If you had bet the flop you might have gotten raised and called. Think about that. I'm estimating you're wallet is about $500 lighter than it should be. That's a lot of fish filets.

Hey flyingtriangle, good to see you back on the board. Preflop is obviously a 3bet, but you know that, and I get the instinct to just throw out a "whatever" call. I'm sure I've probably made the exact same mistake at some point. But you HAVE to bet the flop there with your set. After the flop, it wouldn't be nearly as suspicicious for you to bet and it could have seriously derailed your hand/potential value to check it back. Happy it worked out for you. Keep grinding, I'm doing the same.

Good to see you on here again, spikeraw22! I still feel like I owe you one from all the great advice you dropped on me back in January when I first started this thread.

Yeah, I felt like the line I took in that QQ hand lost me a lot of value. I would almost never play the hand in that manner, it was just a one-off scenario where my mind was on the story I was telling to V1 (that 4 minute slow roll with quad 8's one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen) and I just wasn’t prepared to play my hand.

David Chan from Crush Live Poker gave me some pretty good advice for this sort of situation if something like this comes up in the future. Since my MO is that I don’t talk while I’m playing a hand, if I happen to be in the middle of a conversation as a hand is starting then as the action gets to me I can just say something like “oh, hang on, let me look at my cards real quick.” Then if I have garbage I can muck and continue talking, and if I have a playable hand I can take a couple of seconds to decide what I’m going to do without it coming across as “this guy has such a strong hand he stopped talking mid-sentence when he saw his hole cards,” which is what I was trying to avoid.

Thanks woty87, it's good to be back! I felt bad that I had stopped posting for a while, but honestly I was (and still am) somewhat embarrassed both about my results at the time and how many stupid mistakes I was making. Actually posting some updates probably would have helped, because it would have forced me to at least think through everything that was going wrong, but at the time I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.

Anyway, I’m in a better mental state now that I’m not worried about going busto any time in the immediate future, so I’m going to try to get back to posting more regular updates. To that end, here are a few hands from this weekend:

Hand 1
5 limps in front of me, I’m on the BTN with AJ and raise it to $30. 3 callers, including V1 from UTG (normally a solid player but tonight is drunk and splashing around) and V2 in MP (loose-passive fish).

The flop comes out 832, and it gets checked around to me. I’m definitely betting here, but not sure about sizing. I decide to go super-small and bet $55 into the $130 pot. V1 quickly check-raises to $355, EP folds, V2 only has $300 left and calls all-in, and now it’s back to me. I’ve got about $560 left and V1 has me covered.

I go in to the tank for a good two or three minutes on this one. One thing that has me concerned is that V2's range after calling $300 on this flop is probably 90% flush draws, 5% 8x, 3% sets and 2% random crap that he didn’t want to fold, so most of the time I’ve only got 7 outs to make my flush rather than the full 9. But I don’t think V1 is ever going to be very strong here with this action, so I figure an A or a J are probably outs for me as well, and if V2 is on a flush draw there’s a chance I have the best hand right now with ace high.

So I decide to ship. V1 isn’t happy, but he calls. It turns out I’m in great shape against V2's Q6 and V1's 54. The 3 hits on the turn and both V’s are drawing dead.

Hand 2
This has got to be one of the strangest hands I’ve played in recent memory. There’s a button straddle to $10, two limpers in EP, I overlimp from MP with 87, CO limps, BTN checks his option. The flop comes T72 and it gets checked to me. I bet out $35 and only the CO, a fishy young African-American player, makes the call.

The turn is the 6. Definitely not a good card to double barrel, and with decent showdown value I decide to check. Villain quickly bets $35 into the $120 pot, and I make the call.

The river is the K. There’s no way this card could have helped villain’s hand, so now I figure this could be a good spot to turn my hand into a bluff. So I throw out $110, villain takes just a couple of seconds with it and raises to $260, leaving himself about $200 more behind.

At this point I’m just sitting there like WTF, this line makes absolutely no sense. If villain was strong on the turn he would have bet more to protect against the draws, and if he’d backed into a pair with Kx of diamonds I’m pretty sure he’s just calling my bet on the river. I tank for 2 or 3 minutes trying to think of any hands villain could be raising for value in this spot. Unable to come up with any, I make the call.

“Good call,” says villain, holding his cards out face down, ready to muck.

I didn’t want to show my hand if I didn’t have to, so I keep my cards face down and give villain a look to convey that I'm waiting for him to table his hand.

“Two pair,” villain announces, still without tabling anything.

“What? Why would you say 'good call' if you've got two pair?”

Finally, the dealer/host of the game tells villain “he called you, let’s see some cards.” Villain sheepishly turns over A7, which is not two pair, but still strong enough to take down the pot.

So yeah, I guess my read that villain wasn’t going to show up with a value hand was spot on. It could probably be argued that my hand isn’t strong enough even to bluffcatch on this board, but I don’t know... I think I might actually like my play in this hand even despite how it turned out.

As for his behavior at showdown, I don’t think villain’s intention was to get me to muck a better hand. I just think when I called he assumed I could beat two pair, and he was trying to save face by announcing a reasonably strong losing hand. If it was a reg doing this I probably would have made a bigger deal about it, but I don’t think this guy knew any better, so I just shrugged it off and moved on to the next hand.

Hand 3
Less than an orbit later. I straddle to $10 on the BTN, 4 players limp in, and I check my option with T3. (Villain in this hand was the second limper in EP. He’s a decent player and plays a reasonable range preflop. At the start of tonight’s session he was reading the current issue of CardPlayer and sort of moaning a bit to another player about how “he can’t do all this math stuff in his head.” So basically he’s aware of concepts like equity and pot odds but not able to apply them in game.)

The flop is QT5. Villain leads out from EP for $35, it folds around to me and I make the call. As I’m putting my chips in the middle, villain sighs “I can never beat you, man.”

Turn is the 2, villain bets $50 and I call again. River is another blank, the 6, and now villain fires out $125. I tank for about a minute and ultimately decide that with this line villain is going to going to show up with a missed draw often enough for this to be a profitable call and throw my chips in.

“Good call,” villain announces.

“Well,” I say to the villain, waiting for him to turn his hand over, “I hope you’re not going to show me ace ten...”

“What?” Villain still hasn’t tabled his hand.

“I called you,” I tell villain, “show or muck.”

“I said you’re good...” Villain’s cards are still in his hand.

“And the last time I heard that, I was not.”

Finally, Villain throws his cards face down into the muck. I table my hand and halfway apologetically tell villain I wasn’t trying to be a dick, but I really didn’t want to turn my hand over until I was sure I was good.

Current bankroll: $7,214

Tonight I played a frustrating session at a super deep $2/$2 game where there were several fish with $800+ effective stacks, and I just couldn't get anything going. I also spewed off about $300 in two spots trying to bluff a guy who doesn't have a fold button, which I'm not too happy about.

Then this hand capped things off nicely:

I straddle to $5 on the BTN with J5, 3 limps and I check my option.

The flop is 554 and I bet $15 when it gets checked over to me. Villain, a nitty guy who limped from up front, calls, and everyone else folds.

The turn is the 5, so I make quads. Villain checks, I bet $35, villain calls.

River is the 2. Villain checks again, I bet $100 hoping he won't be able to fold a flush, and now villain ships all in for $260 total. I obviously snap call and fast roll the nuts... only for villain to turn over A3 for the actual nuts. I happily pay him off, as I think about how lucky I am that we didn't have another $1,000+ behind because I don't think I'm ever getting away from quads on this board for any amount of money.

Oh, and of course this was at a home game so no bad beat jackpot.

Current bankroll: $6,296

I know the updates have been getting fewer and farther between, but I’m still here!

Had a couple of reasonably good sessions this past weekend, but I felt like just about every significant pot I played was pretty standard and un-interesting, so I don’t have any hand histories to write up. Also, a combination of issues at work, family coming in town, and celebrating my 34th birthday last week have led to me not getting in as many hours as usual.

One thing I’ve been thinking about lately is the way my mental game has been affected by the May/June downswing and the subsequent July upswing. I of course experienced all the normal negative feelings you always hear people talk about when it seemed like I was losing my shirt every single session, and with my bankroll waning I was sometimes genuinely worried about where my next buyin was going to come from if I kept losing too much longer. But throughout this time period I was motivated and eager to go play at every opportunity.

But now that I’ve climbed back out of the hole and can see daylight again, I don’t feel like I need to play poker every chance I get anymore. I would sort of compare it to a feeling of “OK, you got back what you lost. Mission accomplished. Now we can sit back and take it easy.” I actually almost told Mr. Kim I couldn’t make it to his game tonight just because I felt like taking the night off and going to bed early.

I think what’s going on is a sort of meta version of the tendency some players have to play long sessions when losing in an attempt to get unstuck, but quit early when winning in order to lock up a profit. During my downswing, I think part of what was motivating me to play as much as possible was desperation – I had lost a lot of money over the past couple months, and wanted to win it back as quickly as possible. The fact that my bankroll was several thousand dollars lighter than it had been was causing me so much anxiety that I felt like I had to get back to where I was before just so I could get rid of those negative feelings.

I think this suggests that, on some level, I’ve lost track of my goals in regard to this “live poker semi-pro” endeavor. I want to one day be able to support myself playing poker so I don’t have to keep working a job I hate (and, frankly, am not very good at). So why on earth should I feel like it’s OK to start slacking off just because I got back to even? Do I think I can somehow make a living by breaking even at poker? And if I do ever get to the point where I can rely on poker as my only source of income, do I expect that I’ll be able to just stay home whenever I don’t really feel like playing?

I guess I just wanted to write all that up to remind myself that regardless of whether I’ve been running good or running bad over my past few sessions, the goal remains the same, and so does the process to get there. And, having thought through all of this stuff, I no longer feel like taking the night off. So, if you guys will excuse me, I’m going to go call Mr. Kim to lock up a seat.

Current bankroll: $7,209.

Just came across this post, and enjoyed reading it. Flyingtriangle, do you mind me asking what your starting bankroll was? I may have overlooked it in previous posts.

Hi jmcunnin, thanks for stopping by! I don’t mind your question at all. I’m pretty much an open book on here, so everyone can feel free to ask whatever they want and I’ll always do my best to answer. (Only exception is I still don’t want to give out my location right now to avoid having people I know IRL potentially find this thread.)

The“bankroll” that I’m tracking at the moment started at $5,000 in April, but if you’re asking about my starting bankroll back when I first started playing, I didn’t really have one.

My first time ever playing live poker (excluding small stakes homes games when I was in school) was in May, 2013, when I found out there was a card room that had recently opened about 2 hours from my home town. I remember I scrounged up $380 to bring down there with me, which was all I could afford to play with at the time, and proceeded to lose almost all of it. (I cashed out my last $11 before making the long drive home to my wife, who was somewhat shocked at how much money I had lost.)

So I saved up another $300 or so and went back maybe a month or so later. I think I booked a small win that time, so then a few weeks later I had $350 to take with me. A few trips and a few small losses later, and once again I was sidelined, waiting to save up enough for another buy in or two. This pattern repeated itself a couple more times before the end of the year, at which point I think I was stuck about $900.

But then, on my first poker trip in 2014 I finally had a little run good and booked a $450 win, and for the first time I had a “bankroll” that was more than two buy-ins. Not only that, but it was also on this trip that I happened to be seated at a table with a guy from my hometown who put me in touch with the people who run the underground games that I play in now. That’s when I started playing more regularly (since I no longer had to make the 4 hour round trip every time I wanted to get a session in), and also when I started keeping my poker money separated from my life money as much as possible.

So I guess you could look at that $800 I had in my pocket at the start of 2014 as my original starting “bankroll”, although I have withdrawn and replenished a few times since then.

Cool I'm somewhat in the same position. I've played over the past 2-3 years, but only once every few weeks or so. I just recently decided I'm going to step it up a little, and actually study and try to improve my game. I'll definitely be following this thread. Hopefully we will be able to help each other out. Good luck!

flyingtriangle,

Just wanted to say that I have enjoyed following your thread. I imagine that sometimes it feels like you are talking to a brick wall, but I assure you that that is not the case.

I also play in low-stakes underground games in my local area. Currently I probably play only 5 times a month or so but about 2-3 years ago I was playing almost daily.

I really enjoy your session reports, I think you have a really nice writing style. I look forward to your updates and I just wanted to chime in and say thanks for taking the time to keep your thread going!

Good luck in the future!

Thanks Slow Rolla, appreciate the comments! I know most people who read these threads just lurk and never post, but to be honest it does sometimes feel like I’m talking to myself on here, so it’s always nice to hear from people who are following along.

Things have been going reasonably well poker-wise, although I haven’t been getting very many hours in so far this month. I don’t know if it’s a motivation issue or just because I’m tired from spending longer hours at work and not getting as much sleep, but lately I find myself starting to mentally check out if I try to play longer than 3 or 4 hours. It hasn’t really been a problem so far since I usually don’t play much longer than that on weeknights anyway, but I still feel like I need to work on this so I don’t find myself in a situation where I have to leave a good game early just because I can’t focus anymore.

Anyway, here are some hands from this week:

Hand 1
This is actually the second hand of the session (first hand I opened to $15 from the BTN with 98o and took down the blinds). It gets folded to me in the CO and I open to $20 with A8, tight ABC reg ($300 effective) calls on the BTN. I flop two pair on an AQ8 board and cbet $30. BTN calls.

The turn is the K. I like this card because (1) it reduces the combos of AK that villain can have, and (2) if villain has a weak ace now he might think we’re chopping. So I bet out $80 into the $100 pot, villain doesn’t take too much time with it and calls again.

The river is the 4, completing the front door flush. I don’t feel like this is a great spot to keep betting for value as it’s hard for villain to call with one pair, although with $260 in the pot and only $170 behind I guess it could go either way. Anyway, I decide to check, and now villain bets $100. I’m not happy about it, but I make the call. Villain sighs, grumbles “you’re good,” and mucks.

Hand 2
There a limp from an OMC in MP, Freddie raises to $15 from the BTN, I call from the SB with 77, BB calls and the limper calls.

The flop comes A72. I check, hoping Freddie has an ace because he’s never going to fold to my check raise (he’ll put me on a flush draw and call off his stack). Unfortunately, it gets checked around.

The 5 comes on the turn. Since I already whiffed on my attempt at a check raise on the flop now I lead out for $35. The villain from hand 1 calls from the BB, OMC folds and Freddie folds. The river comes the Q, I bet $100, villain calls and MHIG.

Hand 3
Freddie open limps from the HJ, I raise to $20 from the CO with KJ. It folds back around to Freddie, who moans a little bit before putting chips in to call, saying “alright flyingtriangle, let’s see if I can get lucky this hand.”

The flop comes AK9, and Freddie open ships for $95. It seems obvious he never has an ace here, so I don’t take much time to make the call. Freddie turns over T7. The turn is the J, making Freddie’s flush but giving me 4 outs to boat up. Unfortunately, the river pairs the wrong card as the A rolls off, and Freddie drags in the pot.

Hand 4
I found myself in a tough spot in this hand, and still don’t really know whether I like my play or not.

Mr. Kim opens to $15 from UTG. (This is his standard sizing with 90% of his range, although he will open to $20 or $25 with premium hands.) I’m in UTG+2 with JJ and decide just to flat. (3betting obviously crossed my mind, but since I’m putting the preflop raiser on a wide range here I felt like flatting and trying to get value postflop might be better.) What I didn’t expect was that basically the whole table called behind, so now we’re going to the flop 7 handed with $105 in the pot.

I get a reasonably good board for my hand: T62, so when it gets checked over to me I bet out $75. Next to act, the ABC villain from hands 1 and 2 shoves for $105 total. It folds around to another reg in the BB, who now check-raises to $300 total (we started the hand $550 effective).

This guy is on the border of TAG and LAG and is definitely capable of making big raises as a semibluff in this sort of spot, but with the other villain already all-in and with me unable to re-open the action if he flat calls I think in this particular situation the BB is much more likely to have some kind of value hand. Also, with the small preflop raise and 6 callers in front of him, BB’s range here is basically ATC (so he can have all the two pair combinations).

I thought about it for a while and ended up making the fold, and then kicking myself when V1 turned over QT and the BB turned over QT. Two spades roll off on the turn and river, giving V1 the pot with a queen-high flush.

Hand 5
I’m on the BTN with 98. 4 players limp in, I decide to overlimp, and the blinds check. The flop comes JJ3, it gets checked over to a weak-tight player in the CO who bets $25. I make the call, planning to take it away on a later street, and everyone else folds.

The turn is another 3, and now the villain looks frustrated and checks. I bet $40, villain groans that this is the worst card he could have seen and folds TT face up. I table the 98o as the pot gets pushed my way.

Hand 6
There’s a BTN straddle to $10 and two limps from MP. I’m in the HJ with JT and limp along. BTN checks his option.

The flop comes K97, giving me a nice double gutter that will be pretty hard to see if it hits. A tight ABC reg (different guy from before) leads out for $30, I call (as I’m putting my chips in, the reg comments “flyingtriangle floats the flop again”), and the BTN calls behind.

The turn is a total brick, the 4, and the reg bets out again, this time for $60. I think it’s probably close as to whether I have odds to call purely to try to hit my hand, but I’ll probably be able to bluff spades if they come in. So I call, and the BTN folds. Before the next card can come out, the reg remarks “now I just have to decide whether to bet the river, or maybe I should check and let you bluff at it.”

Unfortunately the river was the 5, another brick. Reg bets $75, to which I snapfold. “I needed spades,” I explain as villain drags in the pot.

“Oh, well I guess I should have let you bluff the river then.”

“Yeah... and anyway I guess you probably wouldn’t have paid me off if a spade had hit.”

“No way, I was definitely folding if spades came in.”

So yeah... pretty sure I could have taken the pot down on a spade river, and almost definitely would have gotten paid off if I'd actually hit my hand. Just sucks that the river happened to brick out this time.

Hand 7
Fishy black guy in his mid 20's named Jay (same guy who announced “two pair” in hand 2 from post 83) open limps from UTG+1, weak tight reg overlimps from UTG+2. I’m UTG+3 with 76 and iso raise to $30. Everyone else folds, Jay calls and checks in the dark.

The flop comes out J73. I bet $40, and Jay snapcalls (less than one second between my bet and his chips going in the pot). The turn is the 4. Jay checks, I grab 4 green chips and start to throw out another bet, and Jay announces “call” literally before my chips hit the felt.

The river is the Q and Jay insta-shoves all in for $296. His move was so quick here that I had my doubts as to whether he could have even seen what the river card was before shoving his chips in. I tank for about 30 seconds, gather up calling chips and toss them in the middle.

“Good call, I thought that was a heart,” Jay explains as he tables KT. I flip my hand over and take down a pretty decent pot with my pair of 7's.

Current bankroll: $9,135

Keep up the good work. Yours is one of my favorite PG&Cs.

Hey mate, keep it up, looks like youre doing well. What BRM are you using?

Thanks guys, I'm definitely going to try to!

To answer your question re: BRM: I use pretty much none.

Honestly I think the idea of bankroll management is kind of overrated for people who don't depend on poker to make their living. I'd rather play under-rolled in a more profitable game than try to grind up a roll exercising proper BRM at the lower levels.

Personal preference if poker isnt your income i guess. What do you do for work?

Answer is in post #1.

Had an awesome session last night. Life's easy when you keep making the nuts and get paid off.

Hand 1
Villain in this hand is Roy, the grouchy MAWG from Post 66. The hand just before this Roy got stacked with A8 vs A9 on an AAxxx board and proceeded to throw his hat across the room and drop 5 or 6 f-bombs before rebuying for $200.

Roy limps from UTG+1, one more limp after him and I raise to $35 with JJ. Roy is the only caller. The flop is K32 and it goes check check. Turn is the 2. Roy leads out for $50, which I call. River is the Q, and Roy snap moves all in for $120.

Even though there are now two overcards to my pair of jacks, I'm way ahead of Roy's tilt-shove river range, so I call. Roy announces "two pair", and rolls over 66. I turn over my JJ, and Roy hits the roof. "Son of a bitch!", he yells, as he throws his hat to the floor again. "What the ****?! You couldn't put me on a king there??" I just kind of shrug and shake my head as Roy pulls out another buyin.

Hand 2
Tight passive villain opens for $25 from EP, there's a caller in MP, Wild Bill calls on the BTN, I call from the SB with AK (not 3betting here as villain's range is basically JJ+) and the BB calls as well.

The flop is pretty decent for my hand: QJT. I consider betting out, but decide to check because if the preflop raiser doesn't bet Wild Bill probably will. Anyway, PFR bets $105, Wild Bill calls, I shop for $465 total, PFR calls all in for $265 total and Wild Bill reluctantly folds. PFR has QQ. Turn is the K giving him extra outs to a chop, but the river is the harmless 4, so I scoop the pot.

Hand 3
5 players limp in, I complete from the SB with QJ, BB checks. The flop comes KT4, I check, a mid position limper bets $30, I call and one more player, a decent TAG who started the hand $900 effective, calls behind.

I bink the A on the turn and lead right out for $110. TAG calls, MP folds. I still have the nuts when the 6 comes on the river, and now I fire out $265. TAG tanks forever, mumbles "well flyingtriangle, I really don't think I should call this, but I don't think I can fold either." After a few more seconds he puts his chips in the middle and gets the bad news.

Hand 4
I open to $25 from UTG+1 with TT, folds around to Wild Bill in the SB, who calls, and a tight ABC reg named Big Ron calls from the BB. ("Big" Ron, a white guy in his mid 40's, is so named because he is 6'4" and somewhere around 375 pounds. He's definitely a winning player in these games just because he plays tight preflop and doesn't tend to go on tilt after losing a pot or two.)

I hit middle set on an AT8 flop, and bet out $65 after both check to me. WB quickly folds, Ron takes just a few seconds and calls. Turn is the 6, Ron checks, I bet $165, Ron again takes a few seconds with it and makes the call.

The K comes on the river, and Big Ron quickly throws out 6 black chips, slightly overbetting the $535 pot, and leaving himself just $250 behind. I start to feel sick as I strongly suspect he just got there with QJ. I turn to Ron and say "sorry if this ends up looking like a slowroll, but I really have to think about what I'm going to do here."

"No problem, take your time."

So I take about a minute with it, and eventually decide I can't lay down the effective second nuts (AA and KK not in his range here) and make the call.

"Two pair," Ron announces, "probably the same two pair you have."

So I guess he was trying to get me off a chop by representing the straight? I don't know, but in any case I take down another big pot.

About to leave to go play at the same place again tonight. Hopefully I can pick up where I left off last night.

Current bankroll: $11,201

^^ Nice!

FT, love your thread. I'm also a weekend warrior.
Well play in the hand vs Ron. Did he had AK? Your turn bet was 80% of the pot. Will that eliminate QJo? If he did hit str8 on river, will he try to overbet w nuts? If I did stick around w QJd and bink it, I will probably bet 3-400.

Is Big Ron aware enough to know he's double gutted on the flop with QJ? If so, that's a much uglier situation. If not, it's pretty much a fist pump get it in.

I'm glad to see your bet sizing seems to have improved. It sure does make a huge difference, and hardly anyone ever thinks about it.

Oops, yes, Ron had AKo.

I definitely think he knows enough to recognize a double gutter when he sees one, and would probably play QJo that way a lot, which is why I eventually decided to puke-call instead of shove all in.